The Survival Guide for Making and Being Friends

Whether kids find socializing as natural as smiling or as hard as learning a foreign language, this book can help them improve their social skills so they can better enjoy the benefits of friendship. Practical advice covers everything from breaking the ice to developing friendships to overcoming problems. True-to-life vignettes, “what would you do?” scenarios, voluminous examples, quizzes to test learning, “Try This” assignments for practicing techniques, and advice from real kids make this an accessible life-skills handbook.

Part of Self-Help for Kids®
Free Spirit is the leading publisher of learning tools that support children’s social-emotional health.

Praise for The Survival Guide for Making and Being Friends
“Most kids want friends. Good friends make kids happier and healthier and less likely to feel stressed and lonely. But many kids don’t make friends easily and they don’t know what to do about it. Through quizzes, fun activities, and entertaining advice, Dr. Crist’s The Survival Guide for Making and Being Friends helps kids learn and practice friendship skills. In chapters like ‘How to Handle Fights, Hurt Feelings, and Other Friendship Troubles,’ how to handle it ‘When Friendships End,’ and ‘Seven Tips for Growing Friendships,’ Crist gets to the heart of the matter in a simple, relatable way that will make kids want to read to the very end.”—Cathi Cohen, LCSW, CGP, author of Raise Your Child’s Social IQ

Helping Kids Resolve Friendship Conflicts

A best friend is one of life’s greatest joys. Having somebody to hang out, talk over problems, play video games, or compete on the sports field with can make life a lot more fun for kids.

But what do you do when your kids run into problems with friends? Maybe your child didn’t get invited to a birthday party. Or he found out on social media that his friends are having fun together and didn’t bother to include him. Some friends get into arguments and stop talking to each other for a while. When this happens, your child might think this means the friendship is over, which can be devastating.